Anomaly
by Syndicate Leader Ra
Summary: An NPC returns from the brink of death via an out of body experience. (Semi-SI OC character) (Rating may be increased later)(No Pairings yet)


1 Year Before the Events of RWBY

To say that Horus had had a strange life up to this point would be an understatement, the higher powers sure made it interesting. He had been a savage up till 14, then he had lived in a monastery till 16 when he had been crowned an underworld fighting champion. It was at one of these tournaments where a fledgling huntress had stormed the underground bar and arrested the ringleaders and their drug scheme, a lost fight later he was accepted into Beacon. It was weird how it all began. But that was beside the point right now. Right now, Horus literally had a major pain in the ass, and leg. He had been sitting in a meditative pose for 5 years, unable to get up and even though his body was frozen in time, his mind was still active, meaning 5 years of pure boredom and pain. During the first year he had gone insane in depression, anguished by the fact that despite the many friends he had made over his three years at Beacon he couldn't talk to anybody. The second year had been a year of reflection, he had looked to his past to keep him entertained, reread every book he could remember (due to a near perfect memory), fallen further in his depression as he re-lived all his saddest moments. The third year had been the year when things began to become interesting.

Early in the third year he began to develop a sort of sense of what was around him, he could count the amount of people that passed him every day, he could read the newspapers that Professor Goodwitch would leave on her table, and he could watch the fights that were fought in Goodwitch's arena. Everyday his sense growing stronger with practice. It was a month into practice when the incident happened. It had started with a grudge match between two team leaders, the yellow coloured one running circles around the black one. Then the black one had struck, slamming his sledgehammer into the chest of the yellow one who went flying. Flying straight into Horus, his sword scraping a mark into Horus' back, cutting into the spine, blood splattered out. It was at this moment that Beacon, and Horus, realised that whilst he was stuck in time, he was very much vulnerable. Goodwitch had literally whipped both leaders across their heads for their carelessness, and then when asked why a statue was bleeding, she sighed before giving a brief rundown on the mission that had led up to the events surrounding Horus' imprisonment in time and apparent death.

_"This was the leader of Team HART, he died saving the rest of his grade from a deadly ambush from the Grimm when he used Class 9 Time Dust to freeze the time around the bulk of the Grimm, giving us time to prepare. However, manipulating time is illegal for a reason, that reason being the side effects that can occur from unstable use. As you should know by now, manipulating dusts above Class 6 is extremely dangerous. It is a testament to his skill that the leader kept the consequences only to himself."_ With her explanation finished, like a typical teacher she went on to use his story to give a lesson on the correct handling of dust.

Later that day, during dinner Ozpin gave one of his typically taciturn speeches.

_As you may have heard by now, one of our statues that was presumed dead, was cut and bled today. As a result, we are moving it to the library to prevent any further damage to him. I am sure you would have all heard the rumors about his origin. Take his story as a reminder that as Huntsmen and Huntswomen our duty is to the survival of mankind, our origins were birthed from a need to survive the Grimm, and our purpose was a sacrifice for the continual of our races. To be a Huntsman you may be asked sacrifice anything, and this duty to sacrifice is what separates us from civilians. In the case of our hero now in the library, he gave the ultimate sacrifice of his life. Never shirk away from your duty, as to do so is to spit on the very soul of our civilisation. Remember, for our sacrifice we are held on a pedestal above all other professions and the support we receive is our payment for this sacrifice." _

Dinner was unnaturally quiet that day. A copy of the speech was uploaded by a particularly moved student and by the next day every huntsman in Remnant had seen it. That year the number of retired Huntsmen rejoining the active Vale force outstripped the number of actual Huntsmen active. The Vale government, in one of their rare moments of sense (but also sensing an opportunity to tax more money), decided to change a policy involving the requirements of a Valean Huntsman mission. This policy saw an overall increase in missions, which kept the incomes of the Huntsmen high enough to incentivize more students into the field. More Huntsmen led to more opportunities for protection of workers outside the city allowing for newer roads to be built between towns, and the number of active Huntsmen in towns increased as the transport systems improved. This led to more trade and, gratifyingly in the eyes of the government, more tax. Similar results were seen on a lesser level in other cities around Remnant. When the speech was eventually leaked to the public, it increased the confidence in the caliber of the national Huntsmen schools, Beacon's standing was increased and although the Vytal festival that year was held in Mistral, the chants of Beacon were heard the loudest. Elsewhere in Mistral, a bandit queen spat on the picture of Ozpin. In the Grimmland, a black eyebrow was raised before an order to retreat a planned Grimm invasion was given. After all more huntsmen lowered the success rate of an already shaky invasion, she decided, instead, to use Plan B.

Despite the far reaching, positive consequences of the speech, Horus remained in pain, the effects of being frozen in time meant his Aura was unable to assist his healing. Unfortunately for Horus, the sword which cut him, injected some dust into the wound, normally his Aura would have overpowered and suppressed the reaction, however given its inability to heal him in his frozen form, it merely activated the dust, the Acceleration dust reacted with the time dust to start a slow but painful process of reversing his aging, this also inadvertently saved his life. The time dust in his body was slowly using his Aura to keep active, with the majority of aura used to save his teammates years ago, there wasn't much aura left in his body, the acceleration dust allowed the time dust to be consumed at a higher rate also destroying the left over remnants of the time dust that had been in his body. If he had not taken in the acceleration dust his body the Time dust would have sucked his Aura dry before tapping into his soul.

The amount of pain that Horus was in meant he would do anything to get rid of it. Luckily for him he had been placed in the library. He had at first, just managed to read the titles of the books, however as the year went on, he managed to read pages through closed books. They would lead to him increasing his skill in projecting his conscious outside his body, allowing him to 'perceive' or scry books. It was a pity that he hadn't found his semblance yet. By the end of the fourth year he managed to read the whole library, learning a surprising amount of material. It was a real shame that he wouldn't be able to practice any of the Aura techniques that he had found. He also didn't touch one section of the library containing the smut books. The first time he had read one of the books, between the pain and arousal, he had been unable to think straight for a day. Once again in pain, at the end of the fourth year of imprisonment he attempted to do the impossible, alter the outside world with his soul. The reason why this was impossible was due to the fact that the semblance was the one ability of the soul, and when he had entered Beacon the staff had tested him for his semblance when he had shown a proficiency in aura techniques. The test for a semblance required a proficiency in using aura. He knew that his semblance was something related to the shamanistic roots. So, Horus attempting to do something else with his soul went against every rule that he had read in the books and been taught during his time at Beacon.

He managed to push the majority of his soul out his body by the end of the first month, allowing him to fly around as a small ethereal ball of light. Exploring the academy allowed him to stay up to date with the technologies that had been released to the world of Remnant. Being a free spirit, both literally and metaphorically, meant that by the end of the second month he was attempting to pull pranks on the students and the staff. For once in his life his mischief would be the thing getting him out of trouble as one day, he would notice that he could exert his influence over objects if he concentrated hard enough. Of course, if ever asked he would claim a multitude of scenarios, but never explicitly state that he had been trying to see Goodwitch's tits. He practiced this skill till he was able to routinely pick up heavy weights from the gym. Then he tried to write and realised that he had been practicing the wrong thing, his control with small items was simply atrocious, and his handwriting was illegible. He would then work on finesse for the rest of the year. Finally, it was late in the final exam period when he wrote two notes.

The first one to Ozpin said "I am still alive" with his name on it, it also had details of the second note written on it. The second was to Goodwitch, it was a list of all the underwear she owned and a rating out of 10 of how good she looked in it. Horus figured that if Ozpin wasn't able to figure out a way to get him out, Goodwitch would or he sole purpose of pummelling him into the ground. So, it wasn't a surprise to him when he was moved to Ozpin's office for 'research', Ozpin told him that Goodwitch had torn half the library asunder looking for his statue. After she had calmed down, they had both inspected him to try and see any visible signs of change. They found nothing, apart from his obvious age reversal. Ozpin found a stack of books about the soul and aura and both Horus and Ozpin would look over the books in Ozpin's free time. By now he was halfway through his sixth year of confinement. With the amount of time he had on his hands he decided that he may as well try to unlock his semblance.

The books that Ozpin had stacked next to him had mentioned the semblance whilst exploring the soul. During the next three months, even with his all the time to himself he couldn't figure out a singular personality trait to describe himself. He figured out traits but nothing unique which, he thought to himself, was classic. At this point his insanity was reemerging, six years of sensory deprivation was driving him to the edge. One day he decided to ask about the people in his life, he hadn't wanted to get his hopes up. It if he was going to try and kill himself, he would rather know what happened to the people he cared about. Ozpin sighed when he asked, then he pulled out a whisky.

Ela, his girlfriend, had committed suicide, she went crazy trying to bring him back, joined a cult worshipping some fairy tale god then she jumped off a bridge. She has been presumed dead. Torchwick was an undercover agent in the crime world, the other two were inspired by his sacrifice and travelled around protecting poor towns for a charity. Winter was an Atlas specialist and Phiona is a top huntress in Mistral.

"Your adopted brother is joining Haven this next year." Ozpin finished

Sun? A huntsman, damn had standards fallen that low?

"He wasn't too bad. Compared to what's out there no-one is good, we just have to stay brave," Ozpin sighed cynically, "Anyway your mum, well she comes every year and adopts a team as her children for a week."

She trying to replace me?

"Hardly she hasn't stopped grieving."

Why hasn't she come to visit?

"We didn't tell them that you are actually the statue, we didn't tell anyone, we don't want to get anyone's hopes up. Track records aren't that great."

Ozpin had continued, he listed of other people Horus had known and described their situations. Horus mentally sighed after the conversation, he wasn't needed in the world anymore, people had gotten use to life without him and he was only prolonging the inevitable, with that Horus stopped struggling against the pull he had been feeling. He gave up fighting. He died.

"Horus?" Ozpin asked, "Horus, are you alright? Your aura is fading." With this realisation Ozpin rushed over to try and inject aura to supplement Horus. But Horus had already given up and fed his aura into the time dust, and soon his soul would be consumed too.

As Horus felt the last of his Aura slip away, he attempted to write goodbye on the piece of paper before realizing that since his aura was gone, he wouldn't be able to manipulate anything. To his surprise the pen moved, and he managed to write 'good'.

Horus expected the sixth sense he had developed to slip away, but the connection to the sixth sense grew stronger, and stronger. Suddenly he could sense the entirety of the castle, he sensed Port dragging an Ursa into a cage, he sensed Oobleck making coffee. He sensed Goodwitch pouring over books. Then he sensed more. He sensed Goodwitch's exhaustion as she desperately sought out a way to save him, he sensed the anger that Port felt at the perceived uselessness of his strength, ('All this strength and couldn't save that kid, who was doing _my_ job'). He sensed the panic rise in Ozpin and the dread in Goodwitch when she received the call that she had been hoping not to get. He sensed more; he sensed the whole of Vale (relative high spirits). Then he sensed Remnant. And he sensed an overwhelming pit of darkness, a darkness that reeked of lust, greed, battle thirst and vengeance and most of all anger. He felt all these emotions, that anger, greed and unnoticed to anyone his eyes glowed a sulphuric yellow for a split second before he felt nothing. Then he felt _it_ and otherworldly force that communicated to him, showed him a future Remnant where the lands were scorched, razed, frozen and barren all seemingly at the same time. A future where a figure with glowing eyes commanded forces to raid, pillage and rape their way through villages. He felt the death of his planet. Then suddenly a light emerged from the center of his vision. And he felt himself grow light. He struggled; he didn't want to go now he had seen the truth. He had to go back. So he did


End file.
